Spouts and nipples facilitate the extraction of fluids from a drinking container for infants and small children, sometimes even adults, where the sucking motion of the mouth draws liquid out of the container and through the spout or nipple. Spouts can be hard or soft spouts, where soft spouts often consist of an elastic material, for example rubber or silicone, and can be attached as is conventionally known, to and around an opening in the container by using for example a threaded cap which secures a flange of the spout between the container and the cap.
The spout or nipple is commonly formed as an inverted funnel shape with the flat, radially extending flange for attachment to a bottle opening and an intermediate transition area defined by sidewalls which direct the liquid in the container towards the tip of the spout. The intermediate transition area extends towards the tip which is generally enclosed having one or more slits, pin holes, valves or passages where fluid flows from the container and spout as the user provides suction or a vacuum by sucking on the spout or nipple. As described for example in US Patent Publication No. US2009/0039046, to Man et al., “since the drinking slot is located in an outwardly bulged end region of the bottle teat the withdrawal of food requires that suction work be done.” Man et al. describes one or more drinking slots that are perpendicular to the sidewalls of the bottle teat. By increasing the number of drinking holes or slots or using X- or Y-shaped notches or other shapes within the small recess of the suction nipple area between the sidewalls throughput is increased. However, the location and shape of such slits and notches also diminishes the effectiveness of no-spill properties that prevent leakage of the contents of the container when not in use. Accordingly a higher throughput spout with improved no-spill effectiveness is needed.